Concrete form



Oct- 1 F. ARTIGALAS ETAL 3,057,269.

CONCRETE FORM Filed July 28. 1958 IIYVENTORS Frank Arhqclos BY William C.Rickman United States Patent 3,057,269 CONCRETE FORM Frank Artigalas and William C. Rickman, Redwood City, Calif., assiguors to Metroform Company, Redwood City, Calif., a corporation of California Filed July 28, 1958, Ser. No. 751,323 1 Claim. (Cl. 94-17) This invention relates to a new and useful divider strip of the type adaptable for use as a concrete form in the pouring and forming of concrete slabs.

In the art of forming concrete slabs, forms are laid prescribing substantially rectangular enclosed areas into which concrete is poured. conventionally, wood or metal vertical strips are used which are deformed in cross section to form a mold which forms a preselected concrete slab side wall shape. It is common practice in this way to provide a tongue-and-groove deformation in the side walls of adjacent slabs to interlock the slabs in relatively coplanar alignment.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a new and improved divider strip shaped to form concrete side walls in a preselected shape in which the divider strip is mounted on stakes inserted into the ground.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new divider strip comprising a strip of material rapidly mounted with a minimum of labor upon vertical stakes in spaced relation to the ground surface.

A still further object of this invention is to provide the stakes each with a lip to supportably engage the bottom portion of the strip and hold the strip tightly against the lower walls of the stakes and to deform the top portion of the strip to form a nest to lock the top portion of the strip against the top of the stake.

A feature and advantage of this invention is that the strip is urged against two portions of the stake from opposite sides to tightly compress the strip against the stake so the concrete can be poured on either side of the strip.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification and referring to the accompanying drawings in which similar characters of reference represent corresponding parts in each of the several views.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a principal embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 taken at line 22.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged view of FIG. 1 taken from the opposite side.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective fragmentary view of the end portion of the strip of FIG. 1.

The principal embodiment of the invention, as seen in the drawings, generally comprises a divider strip A which is vertically mounted on the front face 12 of stakes B.

Stakes B are formed of flat bar stock and are provided with a pointed tip 15, a flat upper edge 16, and an inverted U-shaped cut-out 17 which forms a forwardly upwardly projecting lip 18. The lip forms a support for the lower edge of the strip.

Divider strip A is formed of flat sheet metal stock of substantial length such as, for example, 15 to 20 feet and is formed with a front face 19 and a rear face 20 to form in cross-section an upper length 21 and a lower length 22 with a forwardly projecting half-hexagonal protrusion 23 forming a key deformation between the upper and lower lengths. The upper edgeof length 21 is flanged rearwardly outwardly at 24 and thence depends downwardly to form a tongue 26 which depends in spaced parice allel relation to length 21. The plane of bottom lengths 22 is angled to a point a few degrees rearwardly relative to the plane of length 21.

In operation stakes B are inserted into the ground and aligned with top edge 16 and lip 18 of each stake in horizontal alignment and with the plane of the broad faces of each stake being in coplanar relation. Strip A is then positioned on the stakes by nesting bottom length 22 between lip 18 and the front face of each stake and with the upper edge 16 of the stake nested between tongue 26 and the rear face of the stake.

Tongue 26 is then forced inwardly to lock the strips in place and bend length 22 (which is normally angled outwardly a few degrees) into a plane in substantially coplanar relation with length 21. This affords a biasing action to spring urge the strip tightly against the stake in cooperation with tongue 26 which overlays the rear face of the stake to hold the strip against the rear face. In a conventional installation the strip is disposed in spaced relation to the ground surface as indicated in FIG. 3. The provision of means to lock the top and bottom of the strip to the stake prevents the strip from swinging or floating up as concrete is poured. Furthermore, the strip can be used with concrete being poured from either the front or rear side of the strip.

The half-hexagonal deformation 23 forms a mold to either form a tongue on the front side or a groove on the rear side which molds the sides of the concrete slab. The alternate use of adjacent tongue-and-groove forms a means to interlock adjacent slabs of concrete in relative coplanar alignment.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it is understood that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the spirit of the invention as limited only by the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In a concrete form of the type having an elongated sheet metal strip mounted on a plurality of aligned vertical stakes in which the stakes support the metal strip in spaced relation to a primary support and in which the strip is formed with upper and lower lengths having a key deformation formed between the upper and lower lengths the improvement comprising a strip supporting lip extending outwardly and upwardly from the lower portion of each said stake, the broad face of the lower length of said strip being on a plane extending in a direction opposite the direction of said key deformation relative to the plane of the broad face of the upper length, said lower length being mounted within the lips of said stakes and biased by said lip in substantially coplanar relationship to the face of said stakes whereby the upper length of said strip is forcefully urged to a coplanar position relative to said stakes, the upper edge of the upper length being formed with a flange extending in a direction opposite to the direction of the key deformation and thence downwardly to a position overlying said stakes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Coleman May 30, 1905 Bunce July 10, 1906 Moore Jan. 13, 1914 Curtenius Nov. 27, 1917 Colarusso Oct. 13, 1937 Johnson Mar. 1, 1949 Yarrow Nov. 14, 1950 Wilbur Aug. 26, 1958 

